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Pickled Mangoes

Pickled mangoes preserved with salt, spices, and vinegar or cabbage leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

  1. Cut the mangoes in half and remove all the seeds.

  2. Tie the mango halves together with coarse thread.

  3. Soak the tied mango halves in a mixture of coarse sea salt and water for 3-4 days.

  4. Wash and drain the mangoes.

Pickle

  1. Place the mangoes in a kettle with vine or cabbage leaves on top.

  2. Pour in enough hot water to cover the mangoes and keep them warm near the fire.

  3. Once the mangoes are green, remove them from the kettle.

  4. Untie the mango halves and drain them.

Fill and jar

  1. Finely slice some horse-radish and mix it with mace, cloves, pepper, allspice, and mustard seed.

  2. Fill the mango halves with the spice mixture and add a clove of garlic if desired.

  3. Reassemble the mango halves, tie them again, and place them in jars.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cabbage + radishtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together106 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mangoes
Provide the fruit body that softens and takes up the brine and spices during pickling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out and seasons the mangoes while curing them in brine.
Horse-radish
Adds sharp pungency that mellows during pickling and flavours the filling.
Mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent note to the spice filling.

The step that matters

Keep the mangoes warm and covered while they turn green. Warmth speeds the fermentation and softening, and the leaves and hot water keep the fruit submerged. Uneven warmth or exposed fruit can spoil or pickle unevenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mango, cabbage, horse, radish, clove, pepper, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mango, cabbage, horse, radish, clove, pepper, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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